In a typical exposure apparatus of this type, a light beam emitted from a light source travels through a fly's eye lens as an optical integrator to form a secondary light source (a predetermined light intensity distribution on an illumination pupil in general) as a substantial surface illuminant consisting of a large number of light sources. The light intensity distribution on the illumination pupil will be referred to hereinafter as a “pupil intensity distribution.” The illumination pupil is defined as a position such that an illumination target surface becomes a Fourier transform plane of the illumination pupil by action of an optical system between the illumination pupil and the illumination target surface (a mask or a wafer in the case of the exposure apparatus).
Beams from the secondary light source are condensed by a condenser lens to illuminate the mask with a predetermined pattern thereon in a superimposed manner. Light passing through the mask travels through a projection optical system to be focused on the wafer, whereby the mask pattern is projected (or transferred) onto the wafer to effect exposure thereof. Since the pattern formed on the mask is a highly integrated one, an even illuminance distribution must be obtained on the wafer in order to accurately transfer this microscopic pattern onto the wafer.
In order to accurately transfer the microscopic pattern of the mask onto the wafer, there is a proposed technique to form, for example, a pupil intensity distribution of a multi-polar shape (dipolar, quadrupolar, or other shape) to improve the depth of focus and the resolution of the projection optical system (cf. U.S. Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006/0055834).